20 Days on the Road

Hereford, Tx - Woke up in Clovis, NM at a Pilot Truck Stop bordering a feed lot. It was 16 degrees and I had to force myself out from under the large pile of blankets we depended on to keep us warm in the unheated van. As I walked back from the bathrooms in the pre-dawn, a frozen fog from the cattle’s bodies hung over the line of tractor trailers. The smell of urine hung in the air. Our van, wedged in a spot between the rigs, looked like a toy truck. 

It’s official. I’m over this. 

I want to be back home. It’s been two days since my last shower, with none planned in the immediate future. A week since I have washed my hair. I’ve been wearing the same sweater  - smelling of soy sauce and sushi - every day since I left Pasadena. News of the planned rightwing terrorist attacks across the country has me wanting to get off the road. I now feel vulnerable with every human interaction, not only due to Covid, but to violence as well. My hands are already numb from the short walk from the truck stop. I sigh and yank open the van door.

Two hours later, we are driving across the Texas panhandle through Hereford - “Beef Capital of the World!” Feedlots stretch out around us to the horizon. We see almost no sign of human life, just cattle.

On April 14, 1935, this vast stretch of land was hit with the Great Dust Storm, one of many during the 30s. 

One of the causes of these dust storms - in addition to poor farming methods -  was over-grazing of cattle and sheep, which left the land bare of natural grass and vegetation. Fueled by an economic boom in the 20s, new farmers flooded the region. And in the grand American tradition, refused to follow the scientific evidence on farming and soil conservation. 

According to the Texas State Historical Association, “When the black blizzards began to roll, one-third of the Dust Bowl region-thirty-three million acres-lay ungrassed and open to the winds.”

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/dust-bowl